Only 6% of surveyed teens and young adults named religious leaders among the people they trust most when talking about identity.
A new international study commissioned by Young Life finds that many young people remain hopeful and hungry for face-to-face connection—but pastors and faith communities are rarely the first places they turn when trying to understand who they are.
The RELATE Project surveyed 7,105 people ages 13 to 24 in 11 countries between November 2025 and January 2026. When respondents were asked whom they trusted most as they thought about their identity, 62% named family and 62% named friends. Only 6% named pastors or other religious leaders.
Belonging is close—and increasingly complicated
The study found that just 7% of respondents identified a faith community as the place where they felt the strongest sense of belonging. Eight percent included an artificial-intelligence companion among trusted sources for questions about identity—slightly more than those who named religious leaders.
At the same time, the findings are not simply a story of isolation. Eight in 10 respondents expressed optimism about their future, and the share preferring face-to-face connection rose from 54% in Young Life’s 2024 research to 64% in the new study.
Yet the average number of close relationships reported by young people fell from 5.3 to 4.4 over the same period. The combination suggests that many teens and young adults value embodied friendship even as their dependable relational circles are shrinking.
These figures should be interpreted with care. The survey spans 11 countries and does not represent every young person or every congregation. Its questions also measure perceived trust and belonging, not the quality of every pastoral relationship. Still, the gap is large enough to demand honest attention from churches.
Why This Matters
Questions of identity are discipleship questions. If young people do not trust Christian adults enough to discuss fear, purpose, sexuality, vocation, doubt and belonging, they will seek formation elsewhere—from peers, influencers, entertainment, algorithms and AI systems designed to keep them engaged.
The answer is not to condemn a generation for failing to trust institutions. Trust is ordinarily built through presence, consistency, truthfulness and care. Churches must ask whether young people are known by name, invited into meaningful service and given room to ask difficult questions without being mocked or managed.
THRIVE! has explored this challenge in “Your Children Are Already Being Discipled—the Question Is by Whom”. The new data add urgency: formation is already happening, and technology now competes not only for attention but for relational trust.
THRIVE! Perspective
Paul described ministry in deeply relational terms: “We were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (1 Thessalonians 2:8). James 1:19 calls believers to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.
Those verses point toward a pastoral posture that is both biblically clear and personally present. Young people do not need adults to affirm every impulse, but neither do they need leaders who appear only when correcting them. Truth is most readily heard in relationships where love has already been demonstrated.
The Church should not imitate AI by trying to be available without vulnerability or efficient without relationship. Pastors, parents and mentors can offer what a chatbot cannot: embodied community, prayer, accountability, sacrificial love and the good news that identity is received in Christ rather than manufactured through endless self-curation.
A Constructive Response
Churches can begin with simple practices: train adults to listen well, create smaller intergenerational communities, give young people meaningful responsibility, teach a biblical vision of personhood and establish clear safeguards for mentoring. Leaders should also ask young people directly what has earned—or damaged—their trust.
The study is a warning, but it is also an invitation. A generation that increasingly prefers face-to-face connection may be more open to faithful Christian presence than its low institutional trust initially suggests.
